The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-10-07

QuA0o mAxtyI 8ro0db UquHeO OivinO SNP
port, requires celestial reinforcsment
Yet there are tens Of Thousands Of such
men getting splsndidly through. They
see others going up and themselves going
down, but they keep their patisncs. AID
their courage. and their Christian consist
eucy, and after . while their turn Of sue.
cess will come. The owners Of the big
business will die and their boys will get
possession Of the business, and with .
cigar In their mouth, and full to the chin
with the best liquor, and behind pair Of
spanking bays, they win pass every thing
on the turnpike road to temporal and
eternal perdition. Then the business will
break up and the smaller dealers will have
. fair opportunity. Or the spirit Of con.
tentment and right feeling viii take pos.
session Of tho large firm, As recently in tho
case Of the great house Of A. A. Low &
Co., and the firm will say: 1--WE have
enough money for all our needs, and the
needs Of our children; now let US dissolve
business and make way for other men in
the same line" Instead of being startled
at . solitary instance Of magnanin,ity.
rs in the case just mentioned, it will
become q common thing. know Of
scores Of great business houses that have
had their opportunity Of vast accumula-
ton, and who ought to q6it. But perhaps
for all the days Of this generation the
struggle of small houses to keep alive un.
der the overshadowing pressure Of great
houses will continue; therefore, taking
things as they are, you will be wise to
preserve your equilibrium, and your
honesty, and your faith, and throw over
all the counters, and shelves, and barrels,
and hogsheads, and cotton bales, and rice
casks. the measuring light Of divine right.
And the Lord said unto me. Amos, what seest
thou! And said. A plumb line.
In the same way We need to measure
our theologies. All sorts of religions are
putting forth their pretensions. Some
have spiritualistic religion, and their
chief work is with ghosts, and others a
religion of political economy proposing to
put an end to human misery by new
style of taxation, and there is a humans
tartan religion that looks after the body
of men and let's the soul look after itself,
and there is o legislative religion that
proposes to rectify all wrongs
by enactment of better laws,
and there is an Rsthetic re-
ligion that by rules Of exquisite taste
would lift the heart ont of its deformities,
and religions Of all sorts, religions by the
pack, religions by tho square foot, and re.
ligions by the tOn-all of them devices of
the devil that would take the heart away
from the only religion that will ever effect
any thing for the human race, and that is
the straight-up-and-down religion written
in the book. which begins with Genesis
and ends with Revelation, the religion of
the skies, the old religion, the God-given
religion, tho everlasting religion, which
says:
Love God above all and your neighbor Is
yourself.
All religions but the ono begin at the
wrong end. and in the wrong place. The
Bible religion demands that We first get
right with God. It begins at the top and
measures down, while the other religions
begin at the bottom and try to measure
up. They stand at the foot Of the wall,
up to their knees in the mud Of human
theory and speculation, and have a plum
met and a string tied fast to it. And they
throw the plummet this way, and break a
head there, and throw the plum
met another way, and break q head
there, and then they throw it up, and it
comes down upon their own pate. Fools !!
Why will you stand at the foot of tn
wall measuring up when you ought to
stand at the top measuring down?
A few days ago was in the country,
thirsty after a long walk. And I came
in, and my child was blowing soap bub-
bles. and they rolled ont of the cup, blue,
and gold, and green, and sparkling, and
beautiful, and orbicular, and in so small
a space never saw more splendor con-
centrated. But she blew once too often
and all the glory vanished into suds,
Then turned and took a glass Of plain
water, and was refreshed. And so far
as soul thirst is concerned, put against
all the glowing, glittering soap bubbles of
worldly reform and human speculation,
one drought from the fountain from
under the throne of God, clear as crystal.
Glory be to God for the religion that
drops from above, not coming up from be-
Meath!
My text gives me a grand opportunity of
saying a useful word to all young men
who are now forming habits for a lifetime.
OF what use to a stonemeson or a brick
layer is a plumb line: Why not build the
wall by the unaid.d eye and hand? Be-
cause they are insufficient, because if there
be a detection in the wall it can not fur
Their on be corrected. Because by the law
of gravitation a wall must be straight in
order to be symmetrical and safe.
A young man is in danger of getting a
defect in his wall Of character that may
never be corrected. One of the best
friends ever had died Of delirium tremens
at sixty years Of age, though he had not
since twenty-one years-before which he
had been dissipated-touched intoxicating
liquor until that particular carousal that
took him OF. Not feeling well in q street
on hot summer day, he stepped into q
drug store, just az you and would have
done, and asked for dose Of something to
make him feel better. And there was al
cohol in the dose, and that one drop
aroused the old appetite, and he entered
thoroughly under the power of rum. He
entered his homo q raving maniac, his
wife and daughters fleeing from his pres
ence, until he was taken to the City Hos
pital to die. The combustible material Of
early habit had lain quiet for nearly forty
years, and that one spark ignited the con-
f1agration.
Remember that the wall may be one
hundred feet high, and yet q detection
one foot from the foundation affects the
entire sGructur0. ana II you 1.-Two one uuh'
dred years and do right the last eighty
years, you may, nevertheless, do some
thing at twenty years OF age that will
damage all your earthly existence. All
you who have built houses for yourself or
others, am not right in saying to these
young men, you can not build wall so
high as to be independent Of the char cter
of its foundation! A man before thirty
years Of age may commit enough sin to
last him a lifetime. A cat that has killed
one pigeon can not be cured. Keep it from
killing the first pigeon.
Now, John, or George, or Charles. or